Reducing Waste at Bayview Education Centre

When I visit Bayview Education Centre in Port Hood, the first things I notice are the incredibly friendly students and staff, and the brightly coloured, well-labelled waste sorting station in the cafeteria— you can’t miss it!

A motivated group of 12 students in grades six to eight started a Green Team at Bayview this year! The team, along with leaders Ms MacIsaac, Ms Morrison, and Mr Cameron, have some big ideas for what they want to accomplish at their school this year!

Their first goal for the 2018-19 school year was to help their whole school to limit waste. The approach was to host daily challenges during the annual Waste Reduction Week, held this year from October 15-20th. Each day had a theme to encourage all classes in the school to participate in a particular challenge. Check out the fantastic things they did each week to reduce waste! You can see examples of their green artwork in the photos that follow.

Lights out Monday: Try to use natural light; pull up the blinds! Wear blue and green: these colours that represent green and clean.

Textile Tuesday: Wear a sweater to school! The heat will be turned down to save energy!! If you have a shirt, pants, jacket, or hat that doesn’t fit or you are willing to give away, bring it to school to donate. Make sure it is clean and in good condition with no rips or stains. All donations will be given to a charity to help out those who are in need.

Wrapper-less lunch Wednesday: How can you bring a lunch that uses very little wrapper/plastic waste? Can you do it? Bring a lunch with no wrap today!

Think Green Thursday: Create an art piece or writing piece on what it means to be green! Work as a class and be ready to put your creative project on display in your classroom or wing area!

No Food Waste Friday: Say NO to food waste! Bring in one non-perishable food item, canned or boxed, that can be donated to people in need. Once collected we will donate to a local food bank!

During Waste Reduction week, the team had a raffle for a basket of ‘Earth-friendly’ items like a reusable lunch bag, LED flashlight, double-ended pencil crayons, and a recycled-paper writing pad. Tickets for the basket were 25 cents and students could enter their name all week in the cafeteria. The student who won the raffle was super excited to receive his basket! The money raised will go toward future Green Team initiatives.

The team has plans to revive their garden this year and start growing their own vegetables. As a school, they are working to integrate Green Schools resources into the new Junior High pilot curriculum with the hope that the impact will trickle through the entire school population.

As always, it was a pleasure to visit Bayview again this year! I’m super stoked to see what this impressive Green Team will accomplish this school year!

~Shandel Brown, Engagement Officer